From what I see, the first of Southern Tier Brewing tappings are occurring in Atlanta. If someone else is tapping today too – let me know…. Taco Mac’s in the Atlanta area – particularly Metropolis are adding Southern Tier Continue Reading →
A little over a week after Hoppin Frog’s big launch in Atlanta, 2 more offerings have shipped making a total of 6 available now. The follow up offerings are IPA’s, and are 2 of a 4 IPA’s offered by the Continue Reading →
At 5:55pm today the beer world will be introduced to the worlds LARGEST randall. What is a randall you might ask? The name randall comes from an invention by Dogfish Head Brewery – “Randall The Enamel Animal.” It’s an Continue Reading →
Dogfish Head Brewing’s most popular seasonal is back on the shelves and drinking QUITE nicely. Aprihop is this tasty beer I speak of. Aprihop is an American IPA with a twist — Apricots.
So many IPA’s these days have multiple hops used in the brew. That’s not a bad thing, so many of these multi hopped beers are great. However, for a lot of beginning craft beer drinkers, or even some of the Continue Reading →
A Heavy Seas Loose Cannon cask will be tapped at Thinking Man Tavern in Decatur on 6/18.
Heavy Seas Loose Cannon contains more than 3 lbs of hops per barrel and is hopped 3 times. (Thus the hop cubed in the title.) First hopping is kettle, second the hop back, and finally — dry hopped. If you’re a lover of IPA’s this is one tasty cask to try. What is special about this cask is unknown right now… Here is the usual ingredients in Loose Cannon –
Hops – Simcoe, Centennial, Palisade, Warrior
Malts – Pale Malt
7.2% ABV
Thinking Man Tavern – 6/18, 5pm 537 West Howard Avenue
Decatur, GA 30030-3110
(404) 370-1717
THIS TIME FOR REAL! Coming in a matter of days to Atlanta is 21st Amendment Brewery. 21st Amendment hails from San Francisco, California.
It all started back in 2000 when Nico Freccia and Shaun O’Sullivan got to the business of brewing. The friends met in 1995 in San Francisco. Shaun O’Sullivan, once a paralegal and a photographer went to San Fran to take a job as assistant brewer at Triple Rock Brewery. Nico Freccia — actor, writer, and restaurateur had yet another love — homebrewing. In hopes to promote beer culture in the Los Angeles area, Freccia began writing for the Celebrator Beer News, a popular beer publication in the west. Freccia and O’Sullivan took brewing science classes at UC Davis, and the rest is history.
The name 21st Amendment refers to the amendment to the United States Constitution repealing what I call the dark times — aka Prohibition. Freccia and O’Sullivan examined San Francisco culture prior to Prohibition and found that local neighborhood breweries in San Francisco provided not only a place for hand crafted beer that reflected the culture of the neighborhood to be served, but a place for people to gather, exchange conversations, ideas, politics and philosophies. Prohibition destroyed this. Taking a direct quote from their bio —
“In 1920, Prohibition wiped out this culture and put the “local” out of business. For 13 years, social interaction was largely driven underground, to the speakeasies, where regular citizens became a nation of outlaws. “
So tragic, and true. 21st Amendment Brewery seeks to recapture the essence of those small neighborhood breweries, with a celebrated brewpub in the heart of San Francisco, and amazing craft beer to share.
All of 21st Amendment brews are in cans. The initial offerings in Georgia will only be 2 brews —
Brew Free or Die IPA — IPA, 7% ABV. West coast IPA brewed with Warrior hops, and finished with Columbus and Cascade. Dry hopped with Amarillo, Ahtanum, Simcoe. Malts include 2 Row Pale, and Imported Munich. 70 IBU’s. Best selling beer in the 21st Amendment Pub.
Hell or High Watermelon — Wheat beer, 4.9% ABV. Wheat beer, with secondary fermentation with fresh watermelon. Uses Magnum hops, and 2 Row Pale and American Wheat malts. The watermelon flavor is solely pureed watermelon. No extracts or syrups. Yeast is a top fermenting ale yeast. 17 IBU’s
Monk’s Blood depicted in the image at the top will not be shipping immediately. And be sad readers. It’s freaking delicious. It’s a Belgian Dark Ale with… well, lets talk about it when it finally gets here.
Promo posters are leaking into stores now. Check back here and@AtlBeerMasteron Twitter for up the minute sightings. Here’s your proof it’s on the way – CLICK ME
From what I see, the first of Southern Tier Brewing tappings are occurring in Atlanta. If someone else is tapping today too – let me know…. Taco Mac’s in the Atlanta area – particularly Metropolis are adding Southern Tier additions. Brickstore Pub also.
Today at Taco Mac Metro –
Hop Sun — American Pale Wheat, 4.9% ABV. Sessionable summer wheat ale. Dry hopped pale ale with flavors of wheat, barley, and hops. Lemon zest and sweet malts also find their way in. Refreshing
Iniquity Imperial Black Ale — 8.9% ABV. Called the “Antithesis of Unearthly,” this is a hoppy black ale, much like a black IPA.
Brickstore Pub –
Big Red — Imperial Red Ale, 9.5% ABV. Single hopped w/ Hallertau. Spicy. Malty with sweet undertones.
UnEarthly IPA — Imperial IPA, 9.8% ABV. Imperial IPA with huge hop bill. Southern Tier describes it as aggressive.
A little over a week after Hoppin Frog’s big launch in Atlanta, 2 more offerings have shipped making a total of 6 available now. The follow up offerings are IPA’s, and are 2 of a 4 IPA’s offered by the brewery.
Hoppin to Heaven – IPA, 6.8 ABV. American IPA, that is both spicy and citrusy. Full of American hops to build a solid IPA offering on. Year round brew.
Mean Manalisihi Double IPA – 8.2% ABV. Big time additions of hops make this a big DIPA in both aroma and palette. Caramel malts round out this IPA for a delicious, complex offering by Hoppin Frog.
Availability – 22 oz Bomber bottles. Draft (all though no draft spottings yet.) Year Round. Retail $8-10 per bomber
At 5:55pm today the beer world will be introduced to the worlds LARGEST randall. What is a randall you might ask? The name randall comes from an invention by Dogfish Head Brewery – “Randall The Enamel Animal.” It’s an organoleptic hop transducer module. (Very technical.) The original randall looks a bit like a large plastic cylinder full of hops. The theory behind the randall is a lot like tea. The beer is pour into the randall which is full of whole leaf hops. It passes through the leaf hops like water would through a teabag. The alcohol in the beer pulls the oils off the hops adding extra hop/whole leaf hop character. I’ve referred to it as “raw hopping.” Probably not the most accurate terminology, but its functional. 5 Seasons West’s “Randall” is dubbed “Frnnk Tate” and is actually a big metal tower for the hops to reside. Picture of it here.
What you see pictured above is the upgraded, record breaking Randall. It’s a modified hopper, to be filled full of willamette hops in preparation for the Plan B IPA to be poured in. In order to do this, the keg is going to be placed on the second floor of 5 Seasons, near the sky bar. A hose will run down into the massive Randall, filtered through the willamette hops, and finally into the thirsty beer drinkers glass.
Plan B IPA –
Hops – Simcoe, Centennial, Cascade, Amarillo
Raw Hops – Willamette
Malts – Marris Otter, Crystal 50/70
7% ABV
In addition! There will beer another cask on the regular beer engine – a Belgian IPA. It is dry hopped with Amarillo & Centennial. It’s 9% ABV
Both tap Today – April 1st at 5:55 pm! (PS, this is NO JOKE! Be there at 5:55pm and see for yourself!)
5 Seasons West – 4/1, 5:55pm
1000 Marietta St
Atlanta, GA 30318
Dogfish Head Brewing’s most popular seasonal is back on the shelves and drinking QUITE nicely. Aprihop is this tasty beer I speak of. Aprihop is an American IPA with a twist — Apricots.
Some knee jerk reactions from some beer drinkers is NOT to drink fruity beers. If you want to deny your palette of this beer, fine. However, I wouldn’t recommend it. Aprihop is a unique and tasty blend of IPA meets fruit. Pilsner malts and crystal malts are used with Amarillo hops to create a tasty IPA base. Apricots are then pureed and added to the beer.
Why is this year drinking so well? Dogfish openly admits that Aprihop basically “got away” from them over the last few brewing runs. The apricots and sweetness were becoming over accentuated and for the 2010 batch the fruit and sweetness were scaled back to its original recipe quantities. With the sweetness lessened, Aprihop gets back to focusing on the hoppy, citrus vs. fruit balance. Brewer/Founder Sam Calagione called Aprihop “A fruit beer for people who hate fruit beers.” I think he accomplished it.
Ingredients —
Hops — Amarillo
Malts — Crystal, Pilsner
Adjuncts – Fresh Apricots
Availability — March — May. 12oz/4pks, Draft Offerings
So many IPA’s these days have multiple hops used in the brew. That’s not a bad thing, so many of these multi hopped beers are great. However, for a lot of beginning craft beer drinkers, or even some of the more seasoned ones rarely get to experience the flavors a single hops possesses. Believe me, one single hop can make a huge difference.
Mikkeller Brewing hails from Denmark, started in 2006. It’s a collaboration of two home brewers, Mikkel Borg Bjergso and Kristian Klarup Keller. Since Mikkeller Brewing started, they have brewed a line of single hopped IPA’s focusing each of it’s unique flavors.
This Saturday March 27th, Brick Store Pub hosts Mikkeller Single Hop Mayhem! All 10 single hopped beers will be featured on draft starting at 11 am until they float. All hops contain alpha acids. Alpha Acids are the bittering compound that come out of hops when they are boiled. The higher the alpha acid (AAU) the more bitterness is detected in taste. Alpha acids carry a measurement in percentages, based on total dried weight. Below the hops are broken down by each offering, hop info, and AAU percentage
Amarillo, 6.9% ABV. Developed by Virgil Gamache Farms, AAU 5-11%. Considered a medium bodied hop.
Cascade, 6.9% ABV. Developed by Oregon State University in 1956. Breed from Fuggle & Serebrianker. Cascade is a very successful hop, big on grapefruit/citrus flavor.
Centennial, 7% ABV. Release to public in 1990. First bred, 1974. Lot of common with Chinook & Cascade. 9-12% AAU
Chinook, 6% ABV. Bred in the Washington State. USDA bred variant of Petham Golding bitterring hop. Very aromatic. Lots of citrus flavor. Earthy. Great for dry hopping or used late in boil. 12-14% AAU
Warrior, 6.9% ABV. Bred at Yakima Chief Ranches. High bittering hop. With AAU 15-17% Citrusy, earthy.
Nugget, 6.9% ABV. Bittering hop. Floral aroma. Some nugget IPA described with a resin like flavor. High AAU 12-14%
Simcoe, 6.9% ABV. Very popular hop. Hit the scene in 2000. Lots of pine, bitter. Resembles Cascade.
Tomahawk, 6.9% ABV. AKA Columbus. Very well rounded hop. Obvious bittering hop, with a flavor profile to boot. Spicy, citrusy, light hints of fruit. Earthy, low pine.
East Kent, 6.9% ABV. Named for villages of East Kent in England. Hop first grown in 1790. Sweet flavor. Lower bitterness. 7% AAU
Nelson Sauvin, 6.9% ABV. Bred in New Zealand, released in 2000. It has a wine like fruitiness, like Sauvignon Blanc. Fairly rare in the US. 12-13% AAU.
Food pairings as well. Well, there’s your hop info. It all starts at 11 am this Saturday. Flights of 5 beers each will be available too. Food pairings as well
A Heavy Seas Loose Cannon cask will be tapped at Thinking Man Tavern in Decatur on 6/18.
